Banshee

Rachel Knight, professionally known as Banshee, is an American heavy metal musician based in Los Angeles. Active since 2018, she is known for her signature style of "fairy metal", a blend of trap, hyperpop, black metal, and witch house, with lyrics that aggressively confront misogyny, abuse, and predatory behavior based on her experiences in the metal scene. Since building a following on TikTok in 2020, Knight has released three studio albums: Fuck With a Banshee (2021), Fairy Metal (2022), and Birth of Venus (2023). Her music has received attention from Revolver, Loudwire, and Metal Hammer, and she has collaborated with artists including rapper Backxwash. Early life Knight was raised in Conservative Judaism. She and her two younger brothers both received b’nei mitzvahs and attended a Jewish day school, and Knight attended a Jewish summer camp for four years. Knight was drawn to music from a young age, inspired by Avril Lavigne and Green Day. She began playing guitar at age 8 and performed in various local bands, but sought to be a producer as she didn't believe she could make a living as a smaller musician. Initially a fan of emo music, Knight discovered heavy metal after seeing Lamb of God in eighth grade, and learned to scream starting at age 15 using the videos of noted metal vocal teacher Melissa Cross. She subsequently worked as a local metal producer. Career Knight experienced abuse and sexual assault in her local metal scene, driving her away from the genre for a time as it had become. She later told Loudwire "Metal became so closely associated with abuse for me that it became a trigger. I couldn't listen to it without getting flashbacks and panic attacks." During her absence, Knight moved to Los Angeles, where she became interested in electronic music and sound design and spent a few years exploring her sound through self-production. She initially sought to be a hip hop producer but "got too emotionally attached to my beats" and thus began adding her own vocals to them. She began releasing music as Banshee in 2018, having long been fascinated with the eponymous creatures of Irish mythology and how they served as "a warning to others". She has since nicknamed her fanbase "Stanchees".